North Beach Gallipoli 1915

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On 13 November 1915, there arrived at Williams' Pier, North Beach, Anzac's most illustrious official visitor—Field Marshal Lord Kitchener, Commander in Chief of the British Army. Kitchener had come to assess the military situation on the peninsula for himself. As a result of his inspection, it was decided that all British and Dominion forces should be withdrawn before the onset of winter.

During the phased evacuation of Anzac between late November and the night of 19-20 December, the North Beach piers became major embarkation points. Just before the final stage of the evacuation fires broke out at the North Beach depot. It was a scene captured by Hore in his painting 'Finis' and by Australia's official historian, Charles Bean, in words:

An event which for a moment appeared likely to put the enemy on the qui vive [alert] was an accident which occurred at the very end of the intermediate stage [of the evacuation]. At 1 o'clock on the morning of December 18th, through some cause never ascertained, the central block of the large supply-dump on the foreshore of North Beach caught fire. The conflagration, feeding on thousands of biscuits, bacon, and tinned meat, and on drums of oil, quickly enveloped the whole stack. The sky reddened, and a gun in the Olive Grove began to fire. There was a moment of keen anxiety, since any general burning of stores might have suggested to the enemy that an evacuation was in progress. The desultory nature of his shelling, however, made it clear—as was the case—that he supposed the blaze to have been caused by the fire of his own guns, and that he was merely shelling the spot in an endeavour to increase the conflagration. General Lesslie, as always, went to the centre of the trouble on the beach and, working with a company of the 21st Battalion, some light horsemen, and other bystanders, succeeded in confining the fire to a single stack.

[Charles Bean, The Story of Anzac, Vol II, Sydney, 1924, p.885]

The last boat to leave Anzac did so from North Beach. At 4 am on 20 December 1915, Colonel J Paton, the commander of the rearguard, declared the evacuation complete as the last lighter with troops pulled away into the dark. He decided to wait for 10 minutes for any stragglers. None came. At 4.10, Patons' party embarked, Paton himself being the last to leave.

Until recently, there was little at North Beach to indicate its role in the Gallipoli campaign. For those who know the Anzac story, the names of the war cemeteries along this part of the peninsula coast conjure up the desperate days of 1915 - New Zealand No 2 Outpost, Embarkation Pier, Canterbury and No 2 Outpost. The Fisherman's Hut, near where so many men of the 7th Battalion were killed, is still there and in use by a Turkish family.

Today, at the centre of North Beach, where the campaign in this area began, is the new Anzac Commemorative Site. Here, from the ceremonial area, one can gaze up at the Sphinx and at that great semi-circle of cliffs that confronted the Anzacs as they came to land on 25 April 1915. There is no better place along the coastline of Gallipoli at which to stop and ponder the significance of that distant battleground.

Dr Richard Reid

Dr Richard Reid is a historian for the Commemorations Branch, Department of Veterans' Affairs. He has been involved in projects relating to the Australian experience of war for over 25 years as a high school teacher, museum educator and historian. In 1993 Dr Reid was the Executive Officer on the Australian War Memorial's project team responsible for the return from France of the remains of an Australian Unknown Soldier to the Memorial's Hall of Memory.